The Defense Department will soon reopen the application process for students, recent graduates and military spouses seeking to gain experience in child care and youth programs, the Pentagon has announced.

The Military Extension Internship Program, launched in 2010, offers 10-week to six-month positions taking care of children on military installations worldwide. Defense will accept applications between Nov. 30, 2012 and Jan. 31, 2013.

The Pentagon is encouraging military spouses to apply as part of an ongoing effort to boost their employment. The opportunities are varied and include training in child development, said Barbara Thompson, director of Defense’s Office of Family Policy [for] Children and Youth, in a statement.

“They are placed under a seasoned program director to learn our system from the bottom up,” she said.

She added a quarter of the program’s 200 graduates so far have started careers as federal workers in the child development field -- from managing a youth center on an Army base to directing youth sports programming for the Navy -- and she hopes to see that number grow.

“We wanted to be grooming our staff along the way so we would have experienced people to take on the role of management,” she said.

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